News 5/24/23

Top News

Professional Business Systems, doing business as Practicefirst Medical Management Solutions, will pay $550,000 in penalties for its failure to update its firewall software in a timely manner. That failure resulted in a November 2020 ransomware attack in which hackers stole nearly 80,000 files containing information on 1.2 million patients.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

People

Judy Carpenter (Riverside Medical Clinic) joins Akido as head of medical network operations.

On Belay Health Solutions names Chad Turner (Ventra Health) chief growth officer and Olga Eskinazi (Kaia Health) VP of marketing.

Announcements and Implementations

Southern California-based community health center TrueCare implements Rimidi’s remote blood pressure monitoring and management platform with help from a HRSA Hypertension grant.

Research and Innovation

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health call for EHR vendors to standardize measures related to “after-hours” workload metrics so that health systems can better analyze and adjust workflows to prevent burnout.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD sponsors the Gratitude Gala in Chicago, benefiting The Bette D. Harris Family & Child Clinic.
• Princeton Brain, Spine & Sports Medicine transitions to EClinicalWorks Cloud.
• Nordic publishes a technical paper titled “A New Horizon for IT Strategy: Prioritizing the Patient Experience Through Digital Transformation.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

News 5/22/23

Top News

Toronto-based MCI Onehealth Technologies sells its network of five clinics in Alberta to Well Health Technologies. Both companies develop healthcare IT used by their own primary care networks.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

People

Dave Dookeeram (DispatchHealth) joins Pager as COO.

Announcements and Implementations

Garden City Pediatric Associates (MA) implements EClinicalWorks.

Palouse Specialty Physicians (WA) selects CureMD Oncology’s EHR and practice management software.

DeNova Behavioral Health (KY) implements Tebra’s operating system comprising EHR, billing, and practice growth functionalities.

Other

Raleigh Radiology Associates in North Carolina files a lawsuit against its insurance broker for his failure to notify RRA that its cyber insurance policy had lapsed. The radiology group discovered the lapse when it attempted to file a claim after being hit with a ransomware attack two days before the policy was supposed to have renewed. RRA faces a $1 million in lost revenue and expenses related to recovery and replacement hardware.

Murfreesboro Medical Clinic & SurgiCenter CEO Joey Peay reflects on the recent cyberattack that forced the clinic to close its facilities for several days. He says it was especially difficult trying to keep patients updated while reconstructing their computer systems and working with law enforcement: “It was a situation that normally would take weeks, and we did it basically in four days.”

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks releases a new customer success story featuring Shield Medical Group, “Data-Driven Decisions with Healow Insights.”
• Nordic will exhibit at Infor Connect 2023 May 22-25 in St. Paul, MN.
• Nordic releases a video titled “The Download: Valuing IT as an Asset to Improve Patient Care.”

Blog Posts

• Unlocking the Potential of Your Answering Service: Boosting the Provider Experience (PerfectServe)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

News 5/17/23

Top News

Virtual neurology clinic Neura Health raises $8 million in a seed funding round. The company plans to expand its currently direct-to-consumer offerings to employers and payers.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

NextGen Healthcare reports an 18% increase in Q4 revenue, beating analyst expectations, and a 9.5% increase in annual revenue.The company is reportedly facing a slew of class-action lawsuits related to a data breach discovered in late March impacting 1 million patient records.

Healthcare programs and payments company Nomi Health acquires Phoenix-based clinic I Am Wellness.

People

ModMed promotes Venkatesh Jayaraman (Vertex) to CTO.

Mike Bursich (Membersy) joins Qualifacts as chief revenue officer.

Medicus IT promotes Nelson Gomes to EVP of business development.

Announcements and Implementations

New Jersey-based ACO Shore Quality Partners selects Spatially Health’s Equity Equalizer social determinants of health assessment and interventions software.

Swift Health Medical Group in Atlanta will launch a remote patient monitoring program using technology and services from HealthIQ Solutions.

Government and Politics

Practice management, analytics, and RCM vendor MedEvolve pays HHS $350,000 to settle potential HIPAA violations related to a company server containing PHI that was left unsecure and accessible on the Web, as well as failures to conduct a risk/vulnerability analysis and to enter into appropriate business agreements.

Easy Healthcare, developer of the Premom ovulation-tracking app, will pay a $100,000 fine for violating the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule. The FTC contends that the app disclosed user health data to third parties without their consent, deceived users about its data-sharing practices, and failed to notify its users of these violations.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic publishes a podcast titled “Designing for Health: Dr. Adam Wright.”

Blog Posts

• Happy Birthday to Advanced Reporting & Analytics! (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

News 5/15/23

Top News

Practice Perfect takes an ownership stake in Clinical Billing Solutions, and will integrate CBS RCM software and services with its EHR and practice management system for outpatient rehabilitation clinics.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

People

Jason Prestinario (Komodo Health) joins Particle Health as CEO.

Diverge Health names Vincent Pantone, MD (Elevance Health) chief medical officer and Craig Gaites (Equality Health) SVP of market operations.

Announcements and Implementations

Community Health Access Network will implement Athenahealth across seven FQHCs in New Hampshire.

OrthoCarolina will implement Calm Waters AI’s evaluation and management coding software.

Research and Innovation

A Black Book survey of 2,420 providers finds that nearly all have plans to enlist the aid of consultants to help them move forward with value-based contracting. Providers are still trying to recover from a pandemic-induced lack of VBC resources that led to missed outcome metrics and an inability to handle reporting requirements in-house. Survey-takers ranked CareAllies highest among VBC advisors.

Other

Murfreesboro Medical Clinic & SurgiCenter (TN) seems to have resumed nearly normal operations across its facilities, though messaging via its patient portal was still down as of Friday. It shut down operations for nearly two weeks as it worked to restore systems impacted by a cyberattack in late April.

Sponsor Updates

• Nordic will present at the AMIA 2023 Clinical Informatics Conference May 24 in Chicago.
• PerfectServe honors over 200 outstanding nurses in its third annual Nurses of Note Awards program.
• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Experience a More Efficient EMR with V12.”
• Nordic posts Episode 205 of its DocTalk podcast titled “Decentralized care supports the health of older adults.”

Blog Posts

• Nurses of Note Awards 2023: The Nursing Team at Blue Mountain Hospital, a Critical Access Facility (PerfectServe
• Building long-term ROI with BI modernization (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.

News 5/10/23

Top News

Petaluma Health Center, an FQHC with multiple locations in Petaluma, CA, notifies patients of a March data breach in which hackers accessed information pertaining to employees, board members, and volunteers.

The practice went live on Epic last week.

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present or promote your own.

People

George Hamilton (UnitedHealth Group) joins Athenahealth as chief corporate strategy and development officer.

Announcements and Implementations

The Center for Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery in Texas implements EClinicalWorks.

CHE Behavioral Health Services will roll out NextGen’s behavioral health suite of software solutions across its facilities in 14 states.

Other

Thor Christensen, MD cites Health PEI’s Telus Health EHR as the driving factor in his decision to resign from the Canadian government health system after working as a rural family physician for nearly eight years. Health PEI began implementing the system in the summer of 2021. Some of his complaints:

• Electronically prescribing medications takes four to five minutes, versus 15 paper-based seconds.
• Promised interoperability amongst Health PEI facilities has yet to be achieved.
• Administrative tasks pile up, forcing him to spend several hours on his laptop at home each night.
• The system still can’t assist with bloodwork.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD publishes a new e-book, “The Current State of Telehealth in Ambulatory Care.”

Blog Posts

• Will AI help healthcare systems fight against disintermediation? (Nordic)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

Get HIStalk Practice updates.
Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.